manage Project Support materials on Ipad

[Guest]

Could you please advice an app to manage Project Support files on Ipad, I need something like Evernote only a little more flexible, for example I need folders and sub-folders (or tags and sub-tags) and not just flat lists (Evernote has sub-tags in desktop version but not in Ipad version AFAIK). I need to import files from desktop and I need offline access

 

[humblepie]

i dont think there is an offering like this on the iPad

 

[Oogiem]

I need something like Evernote only a little more flexible, for example I need folders and sub-folders (or tags and sub-tags) and not just flat lists (Evernote has sub-tags in desktop version but not in Ipad version AFAIK). I need to import files from desktop and I need offline access

DEVONThink will do all that. I run it on my Mac and my iPod Touch. Sync is not the easiest to get working (new sync code being worked on) but once you get it stable it's great from organizing masses of information.

 

[tomopix]

OneNote?

What do you use as a desktop computer? Mac or PC? In case of PC I would recommend to use Microsoft OneNote on it and either the official OneNote app for iPad or the MobileNoter which is a 3rd party app for the same purpose: sync your OneNote data to your iPad. To tell the truth I don't have an iPad so can't tell for sure which is better. OneNote also integrates to Outlook smoothly. Search on GTDtimes for an article on it.
Tamas

 

[supergtdman]

thanks for replies, I don't have the iPad yet myself but I'm getting it this month.
I'm using a PC...
I use PersonalBrain on my PC but it's not availabe as a native app on iPad so I've decided to still use PersonalBrain on PC but instead of using it for all information I'm going to use it for general reference/library/knowledge base only. I don't refer to my general reference material often so I won't need it 99% of the time when I'm on the go anyway. I use Project Support files a lot though.

I think that maybe I might get away with using a more simple organizational structure for my Project Support files. While I'm sure this won't work for General Reference because there is just so much data there so that if I'm going to organize with just flat tag lists it's going to be... well just really lame and unconvenient... But I'm not going to keep General Reference on an iPad anyway.

So the tools I plan to use so far are:

Omnifocus(don't have a mac but I don't really think it matters in this case because there are only actions and projects and not something like files and documents).

OmniGraffle for mindmaps (again don't have a mac so I'm not sure if it's going to work but the time will tell, besides, so far it looks like the best tool for my needs, other more simple mindmapping tools won't really work for me because I need a lot of flexibility)

Evernote only as an inbox for general reference because it has great export capabilities and I wrote a script for importing evernote notes to PersonalBrain. Evernote has great clipping capabilities and PersonalBrain doesn't, so Evernote compliments it well.

Still not sure about what to use for Project Support but I'm looking at Springpad right now and it looks really good actually. It's completely crossplatform. It's better than Evernote in some key areas which are important for me. It's worse than Evernote in some other areas but since since I'm using Evernote anyway it doesn't matter to me.

What I mean is - Springpad has let's you organize things without running into a problem of having a long list of tags in front of you at all times. In Evernote you see all your tags all the time regardless of notebook. I actually find Evernote a pretty poor solution for information management because of this. Eventually you just end up with a very long list of tags so it becomes unusable. And you also can't even search for tags, you can only search for notes. So you have to scroll and search tags manually. So Evernote works best if you don't rely on tags much and just rely more on search but this is not organizing, it's good for saving information so that it's not lost completely but it's not good enough for browsing through this information.
In springpad each notebook has tags only related to notes in this specific notebook and you can also search for tags. And you can have sub-notes. What I would really like is not only sub-notes but also sub-sub-nots and so on(or sub-sub-tags because it's the same thing pretty much). This is still a lot better than Evernote flatness and long unmanagable list of all tags. It's still far from enough to manage a really complex database but it might be enough to manage Proect Support only. Oh and one more thing, Springpad interface looks amazing.

Anyway I'm interested in any advice and also how other people use iPad for information management and gtd in general

 

[supergtdman]

I actually found a pretty interesting solution to get unlimited flexibility in terms of information organizing with those apps on an iPad.

Basically it's about using mindmaps for organizing really complex topics when it's needed and using flat lists with tags and notebooks for everything else.

The idea is to basically dump notes in a flat list and then organize all of it in a mind map if needed (80% of the time it's not really needed).

Here is an example, let's say I organize everything with just notebooks and then tags but then I want to structure some topic in a lot more detail without sub-notes/sub-tags/sub-notebooks (which are not even available) and etc. - I use a mind map.
So I just make a flat list of notes about this topic so it's very easy to maintain but then I can also structure it in any way I like with the help of a mind mapping tool.

This mind map itself is attached to the Springpad note and notes in this mindmap are also linked to springpad notes so it's "synced" and easy to maintain. Only 3 tags are used for this but in the mind map I can go as crazy as I like.

Actually I can just keep those notes/files in the mind map file itself only without even linking them with Springpad but since Springpad is also a capture tool I'm not sure which way is better so I'm going to experiment

 

[TedAllen]

Omnifocus(don't have a mac but I don't really think it matters in this case because there are only actions and projects and not something like files and documents).

I also have OmniFocus on iPad and no Mac. I find it works well. But I think and hope that Omnigroup recognizes that the iPad is an appendage of the Mac for only a fraction of their customers. I hope they recognize that the iPad is a separate entity from the Mac and that there are a lot of users of other computers, soon even some who use the iPad almost exclusively, who need to be supported

 

[supergtdman]

So it turns out that you can't access attachments offline in Springpad yet/ever, so it means I need something else.

So any advice is appreciated. I'm looking into memonic and simplenote right now. Also considering getting a Mac :-|

The features I need the most from the notetaking app

• full offline access on iPad
• ability to use folders and tags
• not like it's done in Evernote where you have see all your tags at once, I want to see only tags related to a Notebook/folder/etc

I'm not really asking for too much am I?

 

[supergtdman]

So it turns out that you can't access attachments offline in Springpad yet/ever, so it means I need something else.

So any advice is appreciated. I'm looking into memonic and simplenote right now. Also considering getting a Mac :-|

The features I need the most from the notetaking app

• full offline access on iPad
• ability to use folders and tags
• not like it's done in Evernote where you have see all your tags at once, I want to see only tags related to a Notebook/folder/etc., ideally I just want to use both folders, sub-folders and tags for different purposes
• Advanced search, I need to search for tags or notebooks/folders and etc. and not just notes
  
  Here is an example, I have a tag "contact lenses" and then a note "left lense"
  If there is no search for tags then when I search for "lenses" I get no results which is unacceptable when I'm standing in a shop and ordering my contact lenses
  
  It's actually a poor example though, the note might have also been called "img123912" and then there is completely no chance of finding it, even when it's tagged "contact lenses".
  

Additional features I would really like:

sub-notes/sub-folders/sub-anything

I'm not really asking for too much am I?

I mean Springpad is really close, it just doesn't have offline attachments and I don't really see a workaround for that. I even checked Dropbox and how it handles files offline on an iPad and it turns out it actually doesn't do it well either

 

[supergtdman]

On a side note I'm really liking my new workflow process so far:

dumping everything about a certain topic into a flat list and using a mindmap on top of that to structure things IF I need to. All those notes that are also in a mindmap are tagged with "/mmi" tag so it's easy to see which notes are not in the mindmap. ( so I can add them there whenever I feel like and maybe never)

The key here is that I'm not going to add all notes into mindmaps right away while processing inbox and it's going to speed up the processing/filing of information.

I mean it's MUCH faster to file some info about GTD into just a simple "GTD" catch all bucket rather than GTD-Process and organize-6 level model-projects->*article from DA about projects*.

After that I can also organize more with a mindmap whenever I feel like or maybe I will not.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about

A flat list in Springpad, it's great for quick filing and then finding exactly what you need by searching

A mindmap to structure it in freemind, same notes but much more organized, it's great for understanding the whole picture and browsing

http://i.imgur.com/DV4kG.jpg

Still interested in a good app though

 

[Oogiem]

DEVONThink

I'm not really asking for too much am I?/QUOTE]

DEVONThink does everything in your list. You can download and try it out first too.

 

[supergtdman]

I'm not really asking for too much am I?/QUOTE]

DEVONThink does everything in your list. You can download and try it out first too.

Thanks, I know it's an option but then I need to also buy a Mac... I'm considering it though. I'd prefer win solution though but it looks like some of the the best productivity tools are for Mac only

 

[supergtdman]

Got an iPad yesterday (a little overpriced here in Moscow, 715$ for cheapest model without any cover and such but for me it's worth it anyway) so I'm testing all those apps actually on it, liking the iPad btw, good battery and no need to carry laptop anymore, I still rely on laptop for serious work though

Tried Mobilenoter and my opinion is that it's a tool for people who are already somewhat stuck with onenote because they have all their data there. Mobilenoter allows to view onenote data on the iPad nicely but if you want to actually process and organize things right on the iPad then it's not good because while you can add notes and edit existing notes, the functionality is very limited, you can't even copy paste...
So I'm not going to use it.

I'm not going to use Springpad either because it's lacking in offline features and Evernote is still better overall for General reference material.

So far I've decided to use Evernote for General Reference and use mind maps for Project Support.
I'm using iThoughtsHD for mind maps and I'm just going to store all notes, files(linked with dropbox), images and etc. right in the mind maps without any other tool, so General Reference and Project Support materials won't be linked pretty much at all.

So far it looks like mind maps for Project Support materials is the best tool and gives unlimited flexibility in terms of structure and organization while Evernote looks like a very nice tool to just file all other General Reference in a simple A-Z type tagging system, without any sub-tags.

I also very interested in how other people are using iPad for GTD!
It's so cool to have all your stuff available all the time on such a portable device and also with a very good battery and light weight

 

[Oogiem]

I know it's an option but then I need to also buy a Mac...

You can use DEVON without the Mac app, not quite as effectively but it does work. Then again, switching to a Mac might also be the best option. However I'm not the one to talk to, I've had macs since the very beginning and I hate Windows with a passion, no Microsoft stuff on my computer at all now.

 

[davidobyrne]

use plaintext and dropbox

unlimited functionality

keep notes/memos/ref material in flat text files

structure folders any way you like

not tied to a proprietary offering as they are text files

access your dropbox folder from web, mac, windows, iphone, ipad
using favourite text editor

job done

 

[supergtdman]

unlimited functionality

keep notes/memos/ref material in flat text files

structure folders any way you like

not tied to a proprietary offering as they are text files

access your dropbox folder from web, mac, windows, iphone, ipad
using favourite text editor

job done

Yeah except it's not possible to add folders to dropbox on iPad AFAIK and even if it was, still it's not very convenient to review and not easy to see the overall picture. but thanks for your idea though

I've currenly settled with iThoughtsHD for project support and so far it works awesome!
It's also completely cross platform and syncs with Dropbox too and the information is presented visually which is also great.
Unlimited flexibility in terms of structure too.
Editing and creating mind maps is great, I can add notes, images, links, links to files(which are also all accessible offline on iPad).
besides making a mind map on IPad is a lot more intuitive and fun than on a desktop or laptop. its not easy to describe, but it just feel much better. It's not just the touch screen effect, I also have a win7 convertible laptoptablet and I can say that the experience on the iPad is completely different.

everything is accessible offline on iPad as well as synced with the cloud and cross platform, so I can do pretty much anything and anywhere.

collect, process and organize, review - it all is done mostly on iPad now. doing part still needs other tools though :grin: